Simi Valley High School

Eighteen high school marching bands from Southern California descended on the football stadium at Simi Valley High School on Saturday afternoon for a six-hour competition. Braving the warm weather in wool uniforms, students marched and played in front of an audience of about 250 parents and friends at the 23rd annual Simi Valley Band Spectacular, the primary fund-raiser for the high school's booster club.

Bill Tessar will spend this day as he has for the last five years, on the Little League field in Simi Valley, putting 40 youth baseball teams through their paces at an annual Memorial Day tourney. If he's lucky, the day will be like every other Memorial Day.

Japanese culture will be celebrated at a festival Saturday at Simi Valley High School. Bonsai trees will be displayed by Harry Kobashigawa, president of the Japanese-American Community Center in West Los Angeles. Madame Fumi Akutagawa of Moorpark and her students will demonstrate ikebana , the art of arranging flowers. Japanese dancing will be shown by master teacher Azuma Kikuse of Westlake Village, and Madame Kumiko Serizawa of Sepulveda will demonstrate Japanese doll making.

A 23-year-old Simi Valley High School graduate was among five Marines killed Saturday in Iraq during an ambush by hundreds of insurgents outside their base near the Syrian border, his family said Monday. Cpl. Chris Gibson's unit was escorting a convoy when it was attacked by insurgents near Qaim, according to relatives. Gibson's best friend in the Marines also was killed in the ambush. "The grief is deep and it's overwhelming at times," said Gibson's mother, Terri Bowen, of Henderson, Nev.

An annual Fujimatsuri Festival celebrating the traditions of Japan and the Buddhist Church will be held today in Oxnard. The event will run from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Oxnard Buddhist Church at 250 S. H St. It will include exhibits of pressed flowers, bonsai trees and watercolor paintings. Japanese food will be available and admission is free. A similar festival also will be held today from 1 to 5 p.m. at Simi Valley High School, 5400 Cochran St.

UCLA basketball star Don McLean will be one of several guest speakers at an anti-drug rally scheduled tonight at Simi Valley High School's Bob Jacob Memorial Stadium, school district officials said. The community rally, which will begin at 6:30 p.m, is part of Red Ribbon Week, a national program designed to encourage students to stay off drugs and alcohol, said Ellen Lee, district consultant for curriculum and instruction.

Students at Royal High School in Simi Valley discovered racist flyers stuffed into their lockers Monday morning, the latest in a series of anonymous leafletings at east Ventura County schools. "The flyers were just awful," Simi Valley Unified School District Assistant Supt. Susan Parks said. "They were hateful, derogatory and sickening."

Simi Valley police have arrested five youths--all present or former members of the Simi Valley High School band--in connection with vandalism sprees in September and October, during which the windows of about 150 cars and trucks were smashed throughout the city, police said Friday. Detective Sgt. Kenneth Tacke said the youths used bricks, BB guns and a variety of slingshots to smash automobile windows in random sprees, causing about $15,000 damage.

Simi Valley school officials are recommending that the swimming and water polo teams at Simi Valley High School be disbanded because the program has struggled and the pool where the athletes practice is facing funding problems. Students from Simi Valley High School who want to continue competing in those sports would have to transfer to Royal High School, which has a stronger tradition in aquatics and is slated to keep its water sports, officials said.

Barry Smolin (letter, March 20) referred to teachers at his school holding master's degrees in their subject area, as opposed to a graduate degree in education. I took this as belittling those of us who earned advanced degrees in education. I teach U.S. history at Paramount High School (my undergraduate degree is in history) and have several units in history beyond my master's, which will be applied toward a PhD. Masters of arts programs in education offer teachers opportunities to develop classroom strategies that enrich a student's learning experience.

Simi Valley school officials have instituted a ban on any clothing or jewelry that depicts an Iron Cross, a recognizable symbol of Nazi Germany that is similar to a popular design used by skateboard and clothing manufacturers. School officials said the ban was prompted by recommendations from the Simi Valley Police Department, which considers the Iron Cross to be a gang symbol.

Simi Valley High School topped a field of two dozen teams of young scholars to win the Ventura County Academic Decathlon, reclaiming a title it had won three other times in the last 10 years. The school's nine-member team A -- Simi High had two teams this year -- won the overall competition with a score of 47,560 points out of a possible 60,000 and will represent the county at the state Academic Decathlon on March 12-14 in Sacramento.

The following is a listing of scheduled Fourth of July festivities throughout Ventura County, including parades, concerts, special events and fireworks displays. Camarillo * The Pleasant Valley/Somis Lions Club will host its annual Fireworks Spectacular at Freedom Park. Gates open at 3 p.m. for continuous live entertainment, food, raffles, jolly jumpers and children's activities. Fireworks show at 9:10 p.m.

It may have taken a lot for Simi Valley High School Principal Jan Britz to stand in a tub of noodles and sing the Offspring's "Pretty Fly for a White Guy" at a school assembly. And it couldn't have been easy for 106 of the school's students to have the letters "KROQ" tanned onto their foreheads. But the payoff came Friday, when the school was chosen one of two winners of a "Punk Rock Prom" contest staged by Los Angeles radio station KROQ-FM (106.7).

Dustin Villepigue, a 6-foot-9 basketball player at Simi Valley High, has committed to Gonzaga. Villepigue averaged 12.4 points and 7.8 rebounds as a junior. He chose Gonzaga over St. Louis, Princeton, UC Santa Barbara and Nebraska.

Bands from as far away as Arizona will compete in the Simi Valley High School 27th Annual Band Spectacular on Saturday. Each of the 16 competing bands will perform a halftime show. An eight-member panel of judges from the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Assn. will grade each performance. In addition, the Cal State Northridge Matadors and the marching Simi Valley High Pioneers Band and Pageantry Corps will give exhibition performances. Activities will begin at 1:50 p.m.

As Simi Valley and Moorpark students return to school today, the fortunes of the state's top two Academic Decathlon teams have gone in different directions. Moorpark High School has lured back Coach Larry Jones, who led the school's team to a national championship in 1999. Last year, Moorpark High finished second in California, behind Simi Valley High School.